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Handout #166 |
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The Beginning of Exegesis |
| Moses cannot be the author of all the Pentateuch
It is not difficult to produce evidence that Moses is not the sole author of all the Pentateuch in the form in which we have it today. For example, are we to say that Moses is the author of the last chapter of Deuteronomy in which his death and burial are described? I know that Josephus and Philo resorted to prophecy on this occasion, but one cannot believe them here any more than one can believe the other Jews who attribute all the law to Moses in order to make it more authentic... There is an infinity of duplications in the Pentateuch which do not seem to come from Moses but rather from those who collected the sacred scriptures together, and who brought together several readings and explanations of the same words .... To the number of these revisions or repetitions we add the account of the flood ... These repetitions are even more frequent in Exodus and Leviticus than in Genesis ... The diversity of style which we meet in the books of Moses also seems to be an indication that they have not all been written by the same author. Richard Simon, Histoire Critique du Vieux Testament, 1678. |
